Gun violence in the USA

[maqroll]

 

[choffer]

 

[Stevo985]

13 hours ago, El Zen said:

Another six dead as someone shoots up a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, IL. 

The suspected shooter, a young white male, is apparently still on the loose. 

Ah that's a shame. What a troubled young man. Stand up guy, just fell on hard times and suffering from some mental health issues. Thoughts and prayers

[AXD]

18 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Ah that's a shame. What a troubled young man. Stand up guy, just fell on hard times and suffering from some mental health issues. Thoughts and prayers

Just read a few reactions on FOX news (you know, the only news channel that brings the truth, (unless it doesn't suit them)). Apparantly the shooter was a Trump supporter, present on Jan 6th, but because he looks like Antifa with his ugly tattoos and hair, the consensus on there is that he is a lefty loser. These are not opinions but facts.

[colhint]

43 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Ah that's a shame. What a troubled young man. Stand up guy, just fell on hard times and suffering from some mental health issues. Thoughts and prayers

i think it's time to call it what it really is  its a terrorist attack by a white guy

[Stevo985]

17 minutes ago, colhint said:

i think it's time to call it what it really is  its a terrorist attack by a white guy

Don't be ridiculous. It can't be terrorism if he's white. 

[bobzy]

14 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Also quiet on the video footage released by the police of an unarmed suspect being shot 60 times by police as he tried to run

I'll let you guess at his skin colour 

Watched the video (non graphic) of this on the BBC site - the sound of the shooting is absolutely unreal.  You would never, ever, ever need to shoot that many times.

[Chindie]

US police, when they shoot, unload the gun. It's a miracle anyone that gets shot survives. Watch any of the innumerable 'police response' videos on YouTube, the ones were they shoot its literally empty the gun at the target. Multiple officers doing that and quickly it stacks up.

[Chindie]

56 minutes ago, AXD said:

Just read a few reactions on FOX news (you know, the only news channel that brings the truth, (unless it doesn't suit them)). Apparantly the shooter was a Trump supporter, present on Jan 6th, but because he looks like Antifa with his ugly tattoos and hair, the consensus on there is that he is a lefty loser. These are not opinions but facts.

The line seems to be that he was doing all the things you expect of your classic MAGA Trumper QAnon nutcase ironically.

[choffer]

8 hours ago, maqroll said:

 

A slightly more cinematic angle. Only goes to underline how mental it all is. 
 

 

[BOF]

America is gas.

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Don't be ridiculous. It can't be terrorism if he's white. 

Lib Dem failure of mental health services. 

[fightoffyour]

We never thought we'd be hit like this

Quote

 

Ken Pell is picking up his granddaughters' scooters. His wife and family were at the parade and dumped everything for safety.

"I wasn't here, I was at a nearby golf club and got notification of a shooting. We were then put into a basement for safety. I couldn’t get a signal and I was so panicked as I couldn’t get hold of my family for ages."

His daughter told him to leave the scooters because taking them back "would be bad karma".

"I couldn't do that I wanted to collect them. My grandkids don’t seem too affected at the moment but you know my daughter is not doing well. She is questioning raising her kids in a place like this."

The motivations of the gunman are unknown. Ken is Jewish and says this is a predominantly Jewish area so he is worried that's why it may have been targeted.

"We just never thought we would be hit like this but I guess neither did Uvalde [the site of a mass school shooting]."

Seriously, you never thought? You live in Chicago, in the USA. The possibility, or rather the likelihood, must've crossed your mind.

Edited July 5, 2022 by fightoffyour

[Chindie]

3 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

We never thought we'd be hit like this

Seriously, you never thought? You live in Chicago, in the USA. The possibility, or rather the likelihood, must've crossed your mind.

Worth noting this wasn't in Chicago. Chicago is the nearest major city, but it's 30 miles away. The city is on the border with Wisconsin and by all accounts very, very well to do and wealthy. It's not the kind of place that has the problems Chicago has, usually.

[fightoffyour]

45 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Worth noting this wasn't in Chicago. Chicago is the nearest major city, but it's 30 miles away. The city is on the border with Wisconsin and by all accounts very, very well to do and wealthy. It's not the kind of place that has the problems Chicago has, usually.

Did not know that! Still, in the USA isn't it.

[foreveryoung]

46 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Worth noting this wasn't in Chicago. Chicago is the nearest major city, but it's 30 miles away. The city is on the border with Wisconsin and by all accounts very, very well to do and wealthy. It's not the kind of place that has the problems Chicago has, usually.

Highland park is where Michael Jordon lived, Home Alone Ferris Buller's day off was filmed there apparently. Posh as f****

[Straggler]

Looking at the numbers it seems that this year the USA has lost more people to gunfire that the Ukraine has lost to a homicidal maniac trying to wipe them from the face of the earth.  Not so easy to quantify as sources differ, but on average the numbers are similar at least 

[villa4europe]

Scrolled down that BBC page and came across the Chicago mayor saying "gun violence knows no border or boundaries" 

Well it kind of does... 

 

[Vancvillan]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

Scrolled down that BBC page and came across the Chicago mayor saying "gun violence knows no border or boundaries" 

Well it kind of does... 

 

They literally share the world's largest unprotected border with us up here in Canada, a country with plenty of guns per capita. 

Most of Canada's school shootings in the last 50 years have been an employee shooting colleagues, or a kid shooting another other kid, typically a classmate.  There are a couple of exceptions (École Polytechnique being the most famous and tragic with 14 dead and 14 injured at a college in Montreal in 1989 - shooter was an antifeminist who targeted females), but as horrendous and tragic as Canada's history is, there's no comparison the the US on any level.

We have mental illness, poverty, drug abuse and systemic homelessness, we have extreme leftist and right wing groups, we have gangs, we have gun shows.

We also have the following that the US doesn't:

1. laws that require a day or two of safety training for a firearms permit (two days is for hand guns and restricted rifles like semi-auto centre fires, e.g. similar to an AR15 which was banned a couple of years ago though you can still buy a semi auto in 223 Remington, so the law wasn't great whichever way you swing on the debate).

2. A mandatory 28 day wait time between passing the course and getting your licence, though with processing and background checks / calls to your friends and family this is more like 7 weeks if you have zero issues (you haven't recently got divorced, been fired, etc).  Could be months or more otherwise.

3. A requirement for an additional permit (called an ATT) for handguns and restricted firearms that allows you to transport it only from your dwelling to the range that you're a member of (you can't get an ATT if you're not a member of a range). Want to take the firearm to a gunsmith?  You need another ATT for that address.  Moving house?  You need an ATT. You get the idea.

4. Storage and transportation laws that require any firearm to be stored unloaded and locked. For transporting handguns / restricted rifles it has to be unloaded, trigger locked, then stored in a locked opaque container.  For transporting unrestricted (shotguns, non-semi rifles, or rimfires) they just have to be unloaded so I could technically go drive through the city on my way to the range or a hunting trip with an unloaded shotgun on the back seat, but literally no-one I know does that because it's stupid for reasons that should be obvious.

5. Magazine capacity restrictions - 5 rounds for centre fire rifles, I think 10 rounds for hand guns but I could be wrong on that.

I can still go buy a firearm today at Canadian Tire (kind of like Target or Walmart I guess) and walk out with it in under 5 minutes.  I can go buy ammunition in Walmart right now.  I can go to crown land (public land) and go shoot clays or targets as long as I'm far enough from any road or building.  I can buy a used firearm off someone in a parking lot if I wanted to.

As someone who was bought up in the UK I don't feel like my ability to own or operate firearms is unreasonably restricted in any way.  In fact I'd like a little more tightening - I think any firearm should have to be unloaded and locked unless you're somewhere you can shoot it (crown land, or the range).  In fact every range I've been to would ban you if you rocked up with an uncased firearm, and you uncase at the firing line and nowhere else.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I wanted to give some insight from a country that has a lot of firearms and firearms users.  The US doesn't have to turn into the UK - just look up and see some common sense laws.  Not everyone will agree that they do enough, some will say they go too far.  Are they perfect?  No. But some in the US want to say there's no other way, when a much better answer is literally living next door.

 

[Chindie]

Freedom to grow up as an orphan because his parents went to a parade while a feeble word removed had to show the world how angry he is with an assault rifle.